Alan Johnson dismisses leadership rumours – again

There have been rumours over the past couple of weeks that some have been calling for Alan Johnson to consider making a leadership bid.

We reported earlier in the week that Johnson refuted these rumours and ruled out returning to frontline politics. It seems Johnson has been making his stance clear again. In an interview with the Sunday Times (£) Johnson categorically ruled out the leadership:

“No. First of all, the question doesn’t arise. Anybody who suggested to me — and no one has, incidentally — that there should be a change of leadership, I would say, ‘Get a grip.’ ”

He went on to say that being PM is a “god-awful job”  – and he he’s told Miliband exactly how he feels about it.

He also went on to defend Miliband’s performance, amongst recent criticism from the press. On Miliband’s conference speech, Johnson did admit that it was “not the best speech he’s ever given” but went on to say “people have got to judge him, not one speech — which, in terms of its content, I thought was OK.”